Adventures In Daydreaming
by AnnaOtaku
Summary: Hermione Granger has been daydreaming lately, something practical girls like herself do not do. Her fellow Ancient Runes classmates are determined to find out what, or rather who, she is so completely enthralled with. HHr. Oneshot


**So, I'm exhausted, so all I could come up with was this stupid little one-shot. I promise that once Christmas break comes, updates to my stories will be plentiful. I mean it! Really, I'm not lying to you…again. Okay, now I'm just digging myself into a hole. Just go on and read, please.**

**BTW, this is set in an AU post-war Hogwarts, in which Harry and Ron return to school with Hermione.**

Hermione Granger was, oddly enough, not paying attention in class. A strange and rather terrifying occurrence, it had been happening frequently for the past week. Now, she was still at the top of her class, and her grades were still impeccable, but even her teachers were noticing, and worrying immensely.

In fact, the speculation of the staff got so out of hand that Headmistress McGonagall had to assure everyone that their star pupil was perfectly fine, if not a bit shaken from the events of the past year, and should be left alone.

But Hermione wasn't fine. She was daydreaming, something only girls with curly blonde pigtails and hot air for brains did. Hermione Granger was practical, logical, and did not daydream. It was foolish and unproductive.

And yet, here she was, slumped against her desk, eyes staring into nothing, her mind far away from the classroom. Classmates looked on in wonder, asking in hushed whispers, "What the_bloody freaking Hell_ had happened to Hermione Granger?"

It was Hannah Abbott who guessed it first. The listless look in the girl's eyes, the sad smile, the way she traced the same letters into her desk with her fingers over and over again: Hermione was in love.

Unfortunately, though Hannah had an excellent sense of privacy and sensitivity, her best friend, Ernie, did not. Within a week, their entire Ancient Runes class knew that Hermione was absolutely, undoubtedly, head-over-heels in love.

And though they were considered the smartest witches and wizards in their grade, the small group of students could not figure out who it could be. The obvious choice, voiced by Terry Boot, was Ron Weasley. But, as Astoria Greengrass argued, he was currently dating Susan Bones, and this relationship had not caused any sort of rift between the two Gryffindors.

Harry Potter was the next choice, but was knocked out of the running because he and Hermione had spent the last eight years of their lives convincing people they were just friends. Besides, he was utterly in love with his current girlfriend, Ginny Weasley, and obviously the bushy-haired best friend would never do anything to break up that love. Hannah was sure it was him, though, and that argument only resulted in her being shunned from their "study group" circle.

Every Gryffindor boy from Neville Longbottom to Dennis Creevey was named, each one rejected for compatibility issues. Other names, such as Justin Finch-Fletchly, Viktor Krum, and(much to Astoria's dismay) Draco Malfoy, were thrown in for flavor, but none seemed to fit. Only Hannah stood by her original theory of Harry, still shunned from the heated discussion.

Dean Thomas suggested that it might be a muggle boy from her hometown, but that idea was tossed purely because the group wanted to be able to know the subject of Hermione's affections.

Finally, when the group was about to give up, Blaise Zabini hatched a brilliant plan: if they couldn't use their sharpened intellect to figure out the mystery man, they would just have to see into her daydreams. Every other witch and wizard slapped themselves then and there for not thinking of that idea.

Using a handy little device picked up from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, The DreamScaper, the class settled back, ready to let the show begin.

First, they bribed a second-year into bringing a fake note from the Headmistress to their Ancient Runes teacher. As soon as she was gone, Ernie levitated the small patch(a pale-blue, cloud-shaped sticker covered in a sticky sort of potion) across the room, placing it carefully on the nape of her neck where her ponytail left a bit of bare skin.

She stirred, but settled back in her desk, eyes still out the window. Ernie let out a silent breath of relief, then turned to Blaise, the master mind of this plan. He held up the small mirror that came with the set of patches, tapping it once with his wand. It rippled, turned black, then slowly faded into a picture. The group huddled around Blaise's desk in the back, ready for the action.

At once a man's voice sounded, and Astoria shot a quick deafening charm Hermione's way. The group held their breaths until they were sure Hermione had not heard their eavesdropping, then returned to their invasion of her privacy.

From what they could tell, it was set in a blurry, half-thought of version of the Gryffindor common room, random dashes of red and gold everywhere. A rather ugly-looking Hermione sat on one of the couches, reading. A stunning, and slightly glowing, Ginny Weasley sat next to her, doing what appeared to be what Dean Thomas recognized as the poses of muggle models. Every guy in the room was staring at her, in awe of her beauty and grace. Hermione, hair sticking up in random places and teeth protruding from under lips like a rabbit, looked upon her sadly, then continued reading.

Then Ron entered, and the group started cheering and collecting bets. Ernie was about to force Hannah to cough up two galleons and seven sickles when Ron did not scoop Hermione into a passionate kiss like everyone expected, but smiled at the ugly-Hermione and yelled at his sister for being, in very Ron-like terms, "loose". She, in a very non-Ginny manner, did not yell back, but agreed with him, and told her loving brother that she had decided to become a nun and live her life in abstinence. Though most of the group wasn't quite sure what this "none" thing was, it didn't sound like the Ginny that had come to love.

Then Neville walked in, and the group started cheering again, but _he_ didn't scoop Hermione into a passionate kiss either. He just waved at the ugly-Hermione and offered to give Ginny a ride to the convent. The two left, and Ron went to go do his potions essay in a diligent silence. Dean laughed out loud at the thought of _that_ ever happening.

Then, Harry walked in. The group just nodded and shrugged-he _was _her best friend, after all. He'd probably just give her some good advice on asking out Draco Malfoy, or something in the likes. Hannah watched eagerly, pocketing the money she no longer owed Ernie.

This Harry was not like the Harry everyone else knew. He was plain, with a tired look on his face only compensated by the warm smile on his lips. This was not the boy-who-lived, or the man-who-conquered; this was Harry through the eyes of his best friend.

As he sat down by ugly-Hermione on the couch, the scene changed, and the two of them were suddenly in a tent, sitting side-by-side, hands intertwined. They were not kissing, nor flirting, but just talking, like two good friends. But there was such a feeling of electricity in the moment that the entire group looked at Hannah sheepishly, who smirked and held out her hand to Ernie, who dutifully paid his bet.

They watched the scene for a bit longer as it changed from ugly-Hermione running her hand through Harry's hair as she passed by him to the two walking from some unknown graveyard, arms around eachother, but at last decided that nothing exciting was going to happen. Silently removing the sticker from her neck and the spell from her presence, they whispered theories with each other. Though the group all had their own ideas about the relationship between the two, one thing was clear: the last scenes they watched were real. They had happened, they meant something to Hermione, and they showed that there was a spark between the two friends that no one seemed to know about.

The rest of class went unproductively, their teacher returning and looking rather annoyed. Hermione left the room as soon as the bell rang, a distant look on her face. The others followed quickly, ready to help the young witch hook up with her secret crush.

As she sped up to meet him for lunch, she realized Ginny was clinging to his arm, and took a detour to the girls' room. With a silent understanding between the group, Astoria and Hannah raced in after her while Ernie, Terry, Blaise, and Dean approached Ginny and Harry. With a stealth none of the boys thought they actually possessed, they kidnapped Ginny and shoved her into the nearest broom closet, shoving a suit of armor in front of it. Peeves noticed what they were doing and swore on his un-life to make sure she did not escape until her supply of oxygen was dangerously low. Dean made a mental note to not let it get that far.

As if on queue, Hannah and Astoria dragged a freshly-made-up Hermione from the bathroom, flinging her into Harry. He caught the poor girl, a bemused look on his face as he steadied her. She blushed, glaring daggers at the girls. They just smiled, waving as she and Harry walked into the Great Hall.

Four hours, thirty-six minutes and seventeen seconds later Harry had officially broken up with Ginny(who had been released from the broom closet by Dean) and could now been seen on the grounds of Hogwarts under a big tree, arms wrapped around the bushy-haired bookworm who had accompanied him throughout all of his adventures for the past eight years. She smiled widely, nestled into his chest, and silently made a note to herself to bake cakes for each person in her Ancient Runes class.

From a window in the castle, Hannah Abbott smiled knowingly, and started planning how she was going to spend her winnings.

**R&R!!!**


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